If you have something to say...
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If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
The Blog
A lengthy solitary confinement can cause serious mental and physical damage and be considered torture, according to Juan Mendez, the United Nations rapporteur into torture.
The news regarding the criminal charges brought against John Kiriakou, a former CIA director of counterterrorism operations, for allegedly leaking to ...
Media coverage and op-eds on last week's incident involving the desecration of Taliban corpses by U.S. Marines has been subdued in the United States, but it gathered the attention of many in that part of the world where we have had the most trouble.
It's now 10 years after the indefinite detention prison of Guantanamo was created. With the recent passage of the National Defense Authorization Act broadening, the U.S. government seems to have given up on ever righting itself.
The list of Guantánamo critics is a long one. Archbishop Desmond Tutu dubbed it a stain on the character of the United States. Former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said the United States must close the camp as soon as possible.
Our military is addicted to war porn, and this fact may ultimately usurp any legacy of honor or glory the military may cling to. No longer can the world be duped by the government-controlled facade of the U.S. soldier as a liberating force for good.
What is there to think about, anyway? What is there to say, really, except that there's absolutely no excuse? No excuse for the policy makers and officers, but neither is there one for the brutalized young perpetrators.
By closing Guantánamo, President Obama could take a critical first step to restoring human rights and ensuring that justice, equality before the law, and fair and humane treatment triumph over the politics of fear.
The horrors of 23-hour-a-day lockdown, sensory deprivation and isolation were lauded by DOC officials as a necessary measure for handling the "worst of the worst." Unfortunately, this supposed "worst of the worst" includes the mentally ill.
The U.S. government can't credibly insist that the Afghans improve their justice system and treatment of detainees if the U.S. military doesn't first get its own detention house in order.
If Bradley Manning did what he is accused of doing, he should not be tried as a criminal. He should be hailed as a national hero, much like Daniel Ellsberg, whose release of the Pentagon Papers helped to expose the government's lies and end the Vietnam War.
What's the worst that could happen as a result of the congressional rubberstamp broadening the war and allowing indefinite military detention of American citizens as "enemy combatants"?
Many times we watch movies and read books that are not true and think this could never happen. This was not the case in the novel The Parrot's Perch, by Karen Keilt.
Just as the 19th century abolished slavery and the 20th century established human rights, so too the 21st century is the one in which we can end torture.
We must not lose sight of our goal of maintaining safety while promoting American values through embodying them in laws and behavior. Our country should be focused on ending terrorism, not on terrorizing others.
The defense authorization bill that will soon become law is not only a disaster in the making for civil liberty but a blow to effective anti-terrorist police work.
